PAS’ aggressive push for hudud despite knowing they do not have the numbers in Parliament to implement it, is merely to bolster the Islamic party’s conservatives ahead of its party elections, said G25 spokesperson Noor Farida Ariffin.

“All this, sorry to say, is wayang kulit (a show) on the part of PAS. They are doing this because in two months' time, they are going to face the party election.

“We all know there are two factions in PAS - the progressives and the ulama.

“This is a cynical attempt by the ulama faction to win support among the party faithful in the party election and to burnish their Islamic credentials,” she told a students’ conference in Kuala Lumpur today.

Noor Farida ( left ) said even though PAS’ private member's bill to pave the way for hudud only requires a simple majority to pass in Parliament, ultimately a constitutional amendment is still needed for the law to be valid.

“Even assuming all the Umno MPs vote with them (PAS), if all the Muslim MPs vote with them, they will not get 148 votes (two-thirds).

“There are only 126 Muslim MPs in Parliament,” she said.

Noor Farida added that some Muslims MPs have also declared they will not support the implementation of hudud, including Umno MPs Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz and Nur Jazlan Mohamed, while PBB’s Nancy Shukri had declared that Sarawak's BN parliamentarians will not vote for the law.

G25 is a loose grouping of eminent persons formed as a pushback against what they see are rising intolerance and extremism.

'No selective prosecution'

Asked what Noor Farida would do if she was prime minister, she replied that she would take heed of Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak's brother Nazir, who called for a Race Relations Act to be created.

"If I were the prime minister, I would listen to his brother Nazir Razak and enact a Race Relation Act and act against hate speech and vile rhetoric.

"Take action against them and maybe do away with the Sedition Act and no selective prosecution," she said.

Noor Farida lamented that the Sedition Act was being selectively applied, pointing out that UM law lecturer Azmi Sharom was charged for sedition merely for writing an academic piece on the Perak constitutional crisis.

"On the other hand, a supremacist threatens to burn the Bible in Penang and he is still running around loose to spew even more hatred and racist rhetoric," she said.

Noor Farida, who is Malaysia's former ambassador to the Netherlands, also urged students at the conference entitled 'Moderation: Youth Empowerment and Education Towards Vision 2020', to speak up against what she called the "creeping Talibanisation" of the country.

She added while politicians demand citizens to be responsible in exercising freedom of speech, politicians themselves must also be responsible in what they say.